KOMU-TV
KOMU-TV (Ch. 8) is the NBC affiliate serving the cities of Columbia & Jefferson City, Missouri along with several surrounding counties in central Missouri. The station is owned by the University of Missouri–Columbia & operated by the university's Missouri School of Journalism, making KOMU the only commercial TV station in the US to be owned by a major university. The station has paid, professional staff serving as managers, engineers, sales representatives & so on. The managers, editors & main anchors are School of Journalism faculty members. The reporters, weekend/substitute anchors & many producers are undergraduate & graduate broadcast journalism students. It's transmitter is located in Columbia. KOMU's programming is repeated on LP translator K07SD in Rolla. History KOMU-TV first broadcast on December 21, 1953. It carried programming from all 4 major networks, but was a primary NBC affiliate. It lost CBS in 1955 when KRCG signed on from Jefferson City. The 2 stations shared ABC until 1971, when KCBJ-TV (now KMIZ) signed on. It has been the dominant station in the area for most of it's history. In 1982, ABC moved it's affiliation to KOMU; ABC was the highest-rated network @ the time & wanted a stronger outlet. By 1985, however, NBC had regained the ratings lead. Accordingly, KOMU rejoined NBC on New Year's Day 1986. In September 2006 a KOMU DT subchannel began to serve as the new affiliate of The CW. The new CW network is also on local cable. KOMU's CW affiliate operates with the fake call letters KJWB. The move makes them the only educational institution-owned station to affiliate with the new network. While CW programming is carried on DT3, KOMU 8 Wx+ operates on DT2. In 2002, the station won the Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism for maintaining it's policy banning political symbols on air despite government & popular pressure in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks. On August 8 2008, KOMU became the 1st station in Mid-Missouri to broadcast local news in HD. On December 1 2008, NBC Wx+ (which had been on KOMU's 8.2 DT subchannel) ceased national network operations. Current Staff *Lauren Whitney - KOMU 8 News Today (weekdays) *Megan Murphy - KOMU 8 News Today (weekdays) *Sarah Hill - KOMU 8 News @ 5 (weeknights) *Angie Bailey - KOMU 8 News @ 5, 6 & 10 (weeknights) *Jim Riek - KOMU 8 News @ 6 & 10 (weekends) Weather *Eric Aldrich - Meteorologist: KOMU 8 News Today *Dave Schmidt - Weathercaster: KOMU 8 News @ 5, 6 & 10 (weeknights) *Anthony Slaughter - Weathercaster: KOMU 8 News @ 6 & 10 (weekends) Sports *Chris Gervino - Main Sports anchor; host, KOMU 8 Sports Show *Eric Blumberg - Sports anchor/reporter Pepper & Friends *Paul Pepper - Host *James Mouser - Co-host News Management *Stacey Woelfel - News Director *Holly Edgell - Executive Producer *Jennifer Reeves - New Media Director *Randy Reeves - Managing Editor *Scott Schaefer - Chief Photographer Station Management *Marty Siddall - General Manager *Matt Garrett - Program Director *Shelly Silvey - Production Manager *Chris Swisher - Chief Engineer *Tom Dugan -- Sales Manager News/Station Presentation Newscast Titles *''KOMU-TV News'' (1953-1964) *''The News Camera'' (1964-1971) *''News Eight Reports'' (1971-1974) *''NewsCenter 8'' (1974-1997) *''NBC 8 News'' (1997-2002) *''KOMU News'' (2002-2008) *''KOMU 8 News'' (2008-present) KOMU Alumni *NBC News: **Lisa Myers ('73) **Mark Potter ('75) *ABC News: **Elizabeth Vargas ('84) **Kevin Roy ('87) *CBS News: **Russ Mitchell ('82) *CNN: **Sophia Choi ('92) **Chuck Roberts ('71) *FOX News: **Jon Scott ('81) **Phil Keating ('90) *ESPN: **John Anderson ('87) **Matt Winer ('90) **Michael Kim ('88) External links *KOMU 8 News' Website *Missouri School of Journalism's Website